Good points. However, if memory serves me right Zapatero won the election by distancing himself completely from America on Iraq and this was after 3/11. The population seemed to vote peace by appeasement even after attacked and hence voted a socialist in. Am I mistaken in my facts? You certainly seem more knowledgeable on the subject.
Both Shiite and Sunni supported AQ in Iraq until AQ carried out suicide bombings on both groups mosques. The Sunnis seemed to take bit more time to get it that AQ is just a organization of murder with no true obtainable goals.
Very interesting issue, quant5.
First of all, I would like to ask you what has the Iraq war to do with 3/11. It is often forgotten, that Spain already HAD TROOPS in Afghanistan. Why does "Al Qaeda" leave us alone if we withdraw from Iraq, when we have troops in Afghanistan? What is the difference for Al Qaeda between Iraq and Afghanistan?
NONE.
Therefore, where is the appeasement? In Iraq but not in Afghanistan? What appeasement is that?
Moreover, Zapatero's programm on Iraq was, it is forgotten worldwide, to withdraw the Spanish troops there AT THE END of their mission, that was in June 2004, if there was not a clear UN resolution by then ruling that the "occupation" of Iraq was "legal".
And there was a UN resolution at the begining of June.
So why did Zapatero withdraw the Spanish troops in Iraq in April 2004, in his first decission, leaving the American ones alone in Najaf, which costed American lives?
The link between 3/11 and Iraq is another manipulation. Spain had already troops in Afghanistan. What Zapatero did leaving the Americans alone at Najaf was a gesture to forever link 3/11 with Iraq, that is, it was a part of an elaborated cover-up. Now anyone, worldwide, links both questions.
Zapatero won manipulating the elections, calling the directors of the main newspapers
to say there were suicide bombers on the trains as a part of an agitation campaign founded on 192 assassinations and not doubting to leave American troops in combat alone just to Islamize a coup that had nothing of Islamic.
That is how I see your phrase "vote peace by appeasement". It is a bit more complex. BTW I don't think the fact that Spaniards were mistaken reduces our full responsibility.
Extreme violence by itself does not induce political change. The manipulation of extreme violence by government officials and other top members of the society does. I mean, extreme violence is only the bloody part of a vast plan usually preceeded by disinformation campaign and followed by an agitation campaign.
BTW, what has happened in Iraq with Al Qaeda, already happened in Algeria during the 1990's with the group GIA. People, even very poor Muslims, get finally fed up of indiscrimminate violence.